Hi all, Many thanks for your replies this has been a big help. I have written the lady dealing with the complaint a lengthy e-mail detailing everything that has happened, and she is now apparently investigating things with the companies involved. When I wrote it all down I realised how bad things have actually been and feel very strongly that this claim has not been dealt with professionally by the loss adjusters. I have been on the phone to them in tears at times and have received absolutely no sympathy in fact at times they were downright rude! The worst thing is I did ring allianz early on and ask about alternative accomodation and they said as there was no loss of eating, sleeping or bathing facilities we would not be entitled!! I have heard fairly positive things about Allianz though so I am hoping that now they are involved the complaint will be dealt with properly. I will give you an update in due course!

Just to add, we are still at my parents currently waiting for the decorators to finish before floors are laid.

Hi can anyone give me some advice? We have got an insurance claim going on at the moment with Allianz insurance and they appointed Cunningham Lindsey as the loss adjuster. Our house flooded on the 5th September last year and a claim was put in the next day. Basically they came and took all the floors up downstairs and brought in all the dryers, which were in for about a month. we have two children aged 1 and 2 so there was no was we could stay there with no floors, the baby had just started crawling so obviously could not crawl about on the concrete. we therefore had to move into my parents house about 10 miles away, hoping that this would be a short term thing. Since then there have been a catalogue of errors on the loss adjusters part, for example they delayed by a month instructing some one to take up old floor tiles which were holding water, they first had to be tested for asbestos, this took another month to be done. To cut a long story short they have admitted there were unnecessary delays and I have now had to go direct to the insurance company to make a formal complaint. This has been an extremely stressful time for us all, I have been in tears on the phone to the loss adjuster because of their incompetence, we were unable to spend christmas in our home and we have had considerable expense having to pay 'board and lodge' to my parents towards heating costs etc and extra petrol to work due to having to travel approx ten miles further each way every day. Bearing in mind i have already had to pay a £200 excess on the policy. Anyway they have rung this morning, asked what i am expecting and I have said financial compensation, which they are willing to pay. Trouble is they have put the ball in our court too give them a realistic figure and I haven't got a clue what to tell them! Can anyone advise what would be a realistic figure to ask for?? I need to get back to them by the end of the week. Thanks, Nadine

Hi just wanted some advice really. In March this year I began a claim for charges by writing an initial letter to Lloyds requesting that they repay default charges applied to my account as I believed they were unlawful etc etc. I received a standard reply from them - sorry your unhappy, we believe that the charges are fair blah blah blah - they then said that if they hadn't heard from me by a specified date the file would be closed but could be re-opened at any time if I requested. Anyway I didn't take any further action due to being under a great deal of stress financially and the fact that I became pregnant with my second child - basically I just haven't had the time or energy to focus on anything else and was worried about having to go to court. Then the announcement about the test case was made so I didn't take it any further. I have now decided that I would like to try and persue this, the charges amount to over £2000 and most of them relate to the time that I was on maternity leave with my first child and in receipt of state benefits as I was not entitled to maternity pay. There are however further charges between my letter in March and now. I am happy to wait until the test case in January so basically just want Lloyds to record my claim so that if the test case rules the charges are unlawful I might get something back. What I wanted to know is, (1) can I amend my claim /schedule of charges to include the new charges and (2) how do I word my letter when I write to them again? Do I mention that I am aware of the test case and that they won't be dealing with anything til then (as I don't really want to go down the small claims route at this point)? My baby is due any day now so I am not going to have the time to prepare papers etc. Sorry this is so long winded!! I would appreciate any advice at this point, as I have said I have been under a lot of financial pressure so it would really help if I could get some of my money back.